


Love will bloom

by waterlilyinclearwater



Category: Queen (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Changelings, Fae & Fairies, Fantasy, Fluff, Gift Giving, Leprechauns, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:21:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29442534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waterlilyinclearwater/pseuds/waterlilyinclearwater
Summary: Jim, a lowly-born leprechaun, meets up with his secret boyfriend Freddie in a forbidden forest.
Relationships: Jim Hutton/Freddie Mercury
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	Love will bloom

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lover_of_blue_roses](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lover_of_blue_roses/gifts).



> Hii!   
> For lover_of_blue_roses, I hope you enjoy your valentine fic!  
> And for all the other readers, I hope you enjoy this fic as well :D

The day dawned blue and clear, sun shining enthusiastically, its rays not entirely succeeding in breaking through the mist and getting rid of the chill. Spring might be just around the corner, but it was hiding well for the moment.   
Jim pulled his cloak closer around him, the half-frozen ground creaking under his footsteps. He looked behind him one last time before he launched into a crouched dribble. There was no one around for miles, but the ground was plain and even, nothing to hide behind. If someone showed up, he would be caught, if he crouched or not. Still, making himself as small as possible while still being able to move at a considerable speed gave him a little more sense of false safety, and he gladly gave in.

When he reached the stone wall, everything was quiet apart from one early bird already chirping away. He placed himself flat against the freezing wall. His heart was racing. He was not supposed to be here. Why did he keep doing this to himself?

* * *

Now that he’d reached his destination and was forced to stay still, his restlessness was nearly unbearable. He sat down with his back against the wall, grey cloak drawn around him so as to best blend in against the wall. The bird he’d heard earlier now sat nearly above him, happily singing the time away. Every once in a while the little bird would move about, sending a couple more small stones from the already crumbling wall to the ground.

Jim traced the faded runes on the old stones with a finger. They were ancient, and he couldn’t read them, even if he knew they stood for protection and peace. He stared about the misty countryside nervously, twiddling his thumbs. The mist was slowly receding, showing more and more of the yellow-green grass, here and there interrupted by small black puddles.

More small pebbles clattered to the ground next to him, followed by some larger ones. Jim jumped up and turned around in a single movement, heart hammering in his throat. The moment he heard them fall he knew the small bird wasn’t the cause of those and his assumption was proven correct when he came face to face with a pair of dark eyes. All his air left him when he let it out in a relieved huff.

“I don’t like this place.”

“It’s good to see you too, Jim.”

He huffed mock-indignantly and rested his elbows on his boyfriend’s knees. Freddie was sitting on the wall, right above where Jim had been sitting just moments ago. He looked gorgeous in the pale morning light, the still slightly-rosy sunlight accented his warm skin tone perfectly, drawing attention to the curve of his cheekbone and the softness of his hair and skin. He was simply perfect.

“You’re staring,” Freddie commented amusedly.

Jim pushed his body between Freddie’s knees to bury his face in his belly, wrapping his arms around his waist.

“I’ve missed you.”

Freddie chuckled, pushing himself off of the wall. He seemed to almost float through the air, before landing gracefully on his feet. Jim took advantage of their dissolved height difference to kiss him.

“Come, I have something I wanted to show you!” Freddie started, dragging Jim towards the forest. Jim didn’t resist, worries forgotten now that Freddie was here. They walked toward the edge of the forest, hand in hand.   
The trees were dark and looming, blocking out most of the weak morning light. Freddie made to guide Jim through the trees, but when they were right in front of them, Jim stopped abruptly.

“Come on darling, it’s just a little further.”

“Freddie,” Jim began, his voice soft, “you know we can’t go in there.”

He eyed the darkness in between the trees wearily. This was no longer the terrain of the fae, and the further into the forest they went, the closer they got to the mortal world. His eyes flicked back to Freddie, half-hidden in the shadows. He smiled at him comfortingly, still waiting. Jim looked deep into those warm brown eyes he knew better than his own and sighed resignedly. The effect was immediate, Freddie’s open and comforting expression was replaced by a mischievous one full of glee.

“Alright, I’ll follow. But before we go in there, I’ve got something for you.”

“Oh?” Freddie said almost teasingly, screwing up his face in an attempt at raising one brow, utterly convinced he looked dramatic instead of foolish, “What’s that then, darling?”

Jim took a deep breath, a hint of his earlier nervousness returning. He fingered the present in his pocket – carefully of course, as it was very fragile. Was this really a good idea? The clover was a leprechaun’s symbol, and with good reason. It contained Jim’s very luck, his magic. And without luck, Jim was nothing more than an ordinary being. Drawing another deep breath, he pulled the present out of his pocket. No going back now.   
“Hold out your hand.”   
He held his breath as he gently laid the green leaves in Freddie’s hand, hardly daring to look up at him. It was a strange sensation when he pulled his hand back, knowing he’d given away his very luck. He’d expected to feel something, anything, but all he felt was anticipation for Freddie’s reaction. Would he understand the importance of this gift?

Freddie, for how careless his demeanour could sometimes be, thankfully didn’t jostle the gift. He brought it up to his face curiously, feeling the leaves with his free hand. He looked at Jim with confusion, opening his mouth as if to say something, ask for clarification or protest. He didn’t know how to voice his thoughts, so he ended up opening and closing his mouth a few times, in a bad imitation of a goldfish.

Suddenly Jim had to brace himself, as Freddie stormed at him, all but throwing himself on him.

“Thank you,” he whispered in his ear, voice thick with emotion. “It’s lovely.” Feeling like that didn’t quite cut it, Freddie squeezed his arms around Jim even tighter, in an attempt to communicate all the unsaid words. Jim leant into it eagerly, enjoying the feeling of Freddie’s lithe body close against his, burying his face in his neck. He smelt good. Jim burnt the memory into his brain, never to forget this moment in his long life.

It seemed like both far too soon and forever until Freddie let go, giving Jim a quick kiss.

“Now come! You jumped the queue, I was gonna give you something!”

Jim followed Freddie into the woods, less reluctant than earlier, but still not entirely at ease.

“I found something,” Freddie explained,

“Sorry, found something? Here? Please tell me you haven’t been exploring these woods alone!”

“Why not?”

“Because you could accidentally end up in the mortal realm!”

“So what? It won’t hurt me, I’m from there anyway.”

Jim couldn’t reply, swallowing around the lump in his throat. How was he supposed to tell Freddie about the stories of mortal children, taken by the fae, crumbling into dust upon returning to their own world? Time did not seem to exist here in Elphyne, but all those missed years would catch up on Freddie at once, overwhelming, engulfing, dragging him down into their depts and leaving him stranded, smashed to pieces like a piece of driftwood battered against the cliffs by an unrelenting and unforgiving sea, if he would ever step a foot outside it. He couldn’t bear the thought of that happening to Freddie, much less speak of it. So he said nothing for a while, swallowing around the lump in his throat.

“It doesn’t work that way,” he eventually managed to force out, eyes firmly on the ground. He could feel the next question rising in Freddie, the next remark was going to push on Jim’s buttons. He couldn’t stand it. He understood Freddie only did it to feel cared for. Growing up in a world that was never quite your own, surrounded by people who couldn’t lie but were all the better at twisting the truth into pretty not-truths for it. Freddie needed to see action, or real emotion - something the fae weren’t keen on showing - in order to believe spoken words. He’d taken on a tendency of self-sabotaging actions, in the hope to see some anger to show people genuinely cared.   
Jim knew all too well what was happening now, and he wasn’t having it.

“No, Freddie,” he said firmly, and all playfulness was lost as Freddie closes his mouth again with a snap. There was no anger, neither in Jim nor in Freddie. The latter bumps his shoulder against his boyfriend’s, in a silent way of both forgiving and asking for forgiveness.

“I can’t lose you,” Jim says so softly he wasn’t sure Freddie could hear it. Not that it mattered, because Freddie understood Jim perfectly well, no words needed. He held his hand again, and they walked on in silence for a while, Jim’s anxiety growing little by little every step they took deeper into the forest. At one point it grew too much, and he stopped.

“I think we should turn back.”

“Come on darling, we’re almost there.”

“It doesn’t feel right, Freddie. It doesn’t feel safe.”

Freddie turned to face Jim fully now, stepping even closer.

“It will be alright, I promise.” Jim wasn’t convinced, but he was also not resistant to Freddie’s charms. They might not be the same as their fey counterpart, but they were no less bewitching.

He let Freddie guide him around a few more trees until Freddie suddenly sprained his ankle. When he misstepped in his pain, he accidentally slid down the slide of the sloping hill. As Jim turned to help him up, he heard a small crack. Jim froze. Very slowly looking up, he noticed he stood under a chalice tree. The tree, with dark blue-green leaves, contained huge purple-red speckled flowers, that could collect huge quantities of water. The flowers were sometimes used as aquaria, and occasionally, the fae used a flower of the older trees to bathe in. However, this tree was not the same. The water around these areas was extremely tricky, and something best stayed away from. It was definitely best to avoid getting over a hundred litres of said water dumped on you at once because the stem of the flower couldn’t handle the weight. Very carefully, he made his way down to Freddie, helping him up on his feet. Looking over his shoulder a couple of times, he made sure they were safe, but the tree thankfully held on to its water.

“Are you alright?” Jim made to ask, but Freddie was already out of his support and skipping ahead.

“We’re here!” he announced proudly, seemingly standing nowhere special.

“Where’s here?” Jim asked, looking around. To him, it looked exactly the same as every other square metre of this dark forest.

“Oh, you’ve never had a sense of drama, darling. Look!” Jim’s eyes followed the line of Freddie’s finger and went wide.

“Oh but… But that’s!” He spared Freddie’s gleeful face a quick look, before focussing his eyes on the Cheelon flower again.

“But, how did you find that? I thought they were extinct!”

“You can’t gain without a little risk.”

“You smug bastard. I’ll forgive you for this one though. This is amazing.”

“I knew you would.”

Jim crouched down next to the plant. It came up to about his knee in height and didn’t look like anything special. It had tall leaves, almost shaped like blades of grass, and the two flowers were still buds, the colour not appearing any different than the green of its stem. In short, it wasn’t a very big plant, nor a very beautiful flower, and many would have passed right by it, disregarding it as nothing special.   
But Jim knew better. A couple of nights a year, these flowers would open, and show their luminescent blue beauty to the outside world. That was not what they were known for though, no. The nectar of these buds could produce the most powerful healing potion known to fae.

This was the reason there were so few of these flowers left. As soon as the buds opened, the nectar was collected, hindering reproduction by impeding the spread of pollen. “Maybe you can take a cutting, plant it in your garden?” Freddie proposed, voice uncharacteristically soft. He didn’t want to break this magical moment.   
But Jim stood up again, shaking his head.

“The cheelon doesn’t grow from cuttings, unfortunately. I think it would be best if we just let it be, at least for now. But who knows, if we come back later, we might be lucky enough to find some seeds!”   
He looked at the smaller man beside him, saw the faith in his eyes. Freddie saw him as someone who could make this work, someone who could bring this rare flower to prosperity once again, perhaps one day even cultivate enough healing potion so that nobody would ever have to lose a loved one to sickness again. It sparked a little more trust in Jim, as well.

“Maybe I could plant one of these seeds and grow a flower out of it, one day.”

“I know you can, dear.”

And as they walked out of the forest again, a seed had already been planted in Jim’s heart. A seed of hope, hope that someday they wouldn’t have to hide this relationship anymore. That someday, a lowly-born leprechaun like Jim could properly ask for a changeling’s hand, without shame. And for now, that seed was enough.


End file.
